Implanted inside of an existing building in Montreal’s Parc-Ex neighborhood, atelier in situ has renovated the offices of the motion capture, sound production and gaming studios: Game On and People Can Fly.
The existing building, a big concrete box characteristic of the area, needed some preliminary modifications to allow the space to be inhabitable. By introducing generous windows on two opposing façades, natural light was allowed in, creating a floor for office space while leaving immense generic boxes for the recording studios. Even with the addition of these large windows, the main challenge of the project was the quality of the light to create soothing workspaces while keeping a clear circulation and distribution strategy for the every-day users as well as the visitors.
The solution to this challenge places the working spaces on the periphery towards the exterior façades to allow the employees to benefit from the natural light. On the other hand, the more enclosed spaces, as the meeting room, the phone booth and the common areas, are placed in the heart of the project. These meeting spaces are characterized by materials offering excellent acoustic, curtains for more private moments and a sober lighting where concentration is a key. Oppositely, the workspaces on the periphery retained the white walls and the concrete of the existing building to bring in a neutral and homogenous lighting.
In that sense, a duality is created between the two spaces. The box and its insides offer an atmosphere that is both noble and colorful with materials like wood, felt, dark green walls and soft light, while the periphery integrates itself fluidly in the rough and minimal material palette of the original space.
As well as organizing the workspace and the common space in a clear manner, this central box also simplifies the circulation. The distribution happens between the central space and the periphery. At certain points, this circulation opens, cuts through and eats away at the box to produce moments of opening and gathering spaces defined by their informality and their serendipity. In this project, these subtractions are the key to produce an office where interactions are unexpected and come in many shapes, offering the workers a space that is both familiar and challenging.
